AONB welcome

Welcome to the Surrey Hills Wiki, a centralised library of guidance and best practice created not only by the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Board but also by users and other key stakeholders.

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs)

There are 34 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in England, covering 15% of the land area, and a further 4 in Wales and 8 in Northern Ireland. AONBs are designated by Government for the purpose of ensuring that the special qualities of our finest landscapes are conserved and enhanced.

The Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

The Surrey Hills AONB was designated on 8 May 1958, which makes it the first AONB in southern England to be designated (the first was the Gower Peninsula near Swansea in 1956). The Surrey Hills AONB stretches across a quarter of the county of Surrey and includes the chalk slopes of the North Downs from Farnham in the west to Oxted in the east, and extends south to the deeply wooded Greensand Hills which rise in Haslemere. For further information on the Surrey Hills visit our website http://www.surreyhills.org.

The Surrey Hills Board

The Surrey Hills Board is a Joint Management Committee which is funded by Defra, the National Trust, Surrey County Council and the local authorities within the Surrey Hills area. For further information on the Surrey Hills Board visit http://www.surreyhillsboard.org.